TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Eastern Visayas (DENR-8) is soliciting support and participation from the public on its fight against the illegal cutting of trees in the region. DENR-8 Regional Executive Director Leonardo Sibbaluca told reporters in an interview that community participation is crucial to its determined efforts in the fight against illegal cutting of trees.
Sibbaluca said that he ordered his men in the field to install checkpoints in strategic areas in coordination with law enforcers to check the illegal cutting of trees and the transport of the illegally cut lumber following reports from concerned individuals of timber poaching and transport of illegally cut lumber in some areas. “We are intensifying our efforts to discourage the unscrupulous individuals to engage in timber poaching and the transporting of illegally cut lumber and in the process we are protecting the standing trees in the forests,” he said.

He admitted that at present there is a high demand for lumber materials to reconstruct damaged houses by super typhoon Yolanda of last year. And with this scenario, the DENR is closely monitoring the utilization of lumber especially those that were blown down by the typhoon last year as reason by unscrupulous individuals in cutting standing trees in the forests spared by the typhoon, saying that what they cut are just felled trees, the director added. The director issued his appeal to the public by reporting to his office or to DENR-8 personnel in the field or to law enforcers any illegal cutting of trees or transporting of illegally cut lumber. “We cannot do this alone so we need community participation to protect our standing trees,” Sibbaluca said. (RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

PALO, Leyte- The United States ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg led on October 20 the turnover of keys to small enterprenuers whose sari-sari stores were destroyed in the aftermath of supertyphoon Yolanda. Ambassador Goldberg turned over to 36 sari-sari stores from this town and Tacloban City that were reconstructed and restocked through the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. In his speech, Goldberg said that at least 1,000 stores in Typhoon Yolanda-affected areas will be rehabilitated under this partnership.
Palo Mayor Remedios “Matin” Petilla in her speech during the event said that the reconstruction of the sari-sari stores in her town financed by USAID is a big help for the economic recovery of her town which greatly suffered after the onslaught of Yolanda last November 8, 2013.

She added that the beneficiaries will recover soonest with the help they received from USAID. Petilla said that there are 100 typhoon survivors sari-sari store owners in her town who are to benefit the project.
Meanwhile, during the event, Ambassador Goldberg, in his speech, also announced the establishment of the Micro Enterprise Disaster Assistance Fund for Resiliency or the MIDAS Fund in the amount of Php176 million (US$4 million).

The American ambassador said that the project which is implemented in partnership of USAID with the Philippine Business for Social Progress, is a credit facility that will enable eligible entrepreneurs from Yolanda-hit communities to borrow money to establish or expand their micro enterprises, Goldberg added. He also said that through the USAID Rebuild Project, the U.S. government is working with the national government to restore access to education and health services, livelihood activities and provide technical assistance to the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery. (RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)